Temple of the Dark Moon

Just last week, i got a call from me mam telling me that me dad decided to have a BBQ party. something like to celebrate his 55th Big Day. i must admit that i did consider skipping it… i mean i have to travel all the way from tronoh back to klang from there back here in about 2 days. its a bit waste of my time if u ask me. so battling out the reasons to skip the party and the consequences of skipping it, i met me sis on yahoo msger. being the fillial daughter that she is, she got to know about the party too. so she starts telling me that if i have time i should go back for the partey, cause me dad would be glad and me bro too… all the family stuffs if ya know what i mean. so anyways, knowing that i am quite free that weekend, i had to go with me conscience and go back for the BBQ thingie. Oh, and for a note, don bother to go after someone who decides u are not right for them anymore. especially don bother flying to that country to find them for reconcilation.

so anyways, on friday i decided to take a bus back. being ‘paiseh’ about ppl fetching me to the post office and wait for me while i send my application letters, i walked all the way from my room to the bus station. it took me about 40 minutes to walk from the post office to the bus station though. i was sweating like a pig… boy,did i regret being ‘paiseh’ or what. the bus fare to ipoh has increased about 50 cents for note… oil prices just increased 10 cents, but the bus fare increased by 50 cents…i really cannot see the logic…can u? and whats more, they are running on diesel…i tot the government didnt increase diesel prices? and for anyone without car, thank the gods that the buses has finally decided to stop at medan gopeng. so now u don have to be at the mercy of our fellow demonic taxi drivers for charging u 10 bucks just to get there, u can rely on our ever faithful and ever economical omni general buses that only charges u a minimal fare of 85 cents. since if u sit on a taxi they still wind down the window to allow u to inhale soot saturated air; so why pay more to get lung cancer? think of the 9.15 bucks that u save is for ur future cancer treatment.

when i was at medan kidd, i was determined not to sit on the taxis, so i screened the dust coated signs for any sign of medan gopeng and i spotted it. i made a bee line towards it and i politely asked the lady standing next to the counter how much does it cost to get to medan gopeng and this is how she replied. "go up the bus then buy the ticket" that sentence itself is not offensive. that sentence itself is perfectly understandable. what i don understand is when she said that sentence, it was as if she was scolding a kindergarten kid with gritted teeth and puffed up red cheeks and only half facing me. why the temper lady, its just a question ya know…its better if she learns to calm down… at her age and that temper, its a miracle that none of her veins burst. god must have love soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much.

well, at least not everyone her age puff like a pufferfish whenever someone asked a question. this old man with his granddaughter was very nice when i asked him about which station to get off. he starts telling me about the station that i should get down, that medan gopeng is just opposite, that all the counters are there, that i can buy my bus tickets there, repeated the instructions twice to make sure i get it right. now if everyone’s like him would the world be a much better place?

that earliest bus back to KL was 7.30 and all the buses to Klang was taken. the time was about 4.45 so i was about 2 hours early. so what to do in medan gopeng for the next 2 hours… no exciting movies to watch…all i had was my trusty MP3 player to keep me company. Since the bus will be leaving at 7.30, i ate my dinner there at around 6. and i found this stall that sells ‘char kuey tiao’ … the man told me it was penang char kuey tiao…and that if i want special, i got extra prawn and eggs. seduced by the word ‘penang char kuey tiao’ and ‘extra prawns’ i ordered one special penang char kuey tiao. when the final product came. i was shocked beyond words. because the product have absolutely nothing and i repeat nothing in common or even the same zip code as the world ‘char’. well, definitely there is kuey tiao. because the word ‘char kuey tiao’ should be replaced by ‘wa tan hor’. the so called char kuey tiao is soooooooooooooooooooooooooo wet, the kuey tiao is LITERALLY swimming in the gravy. grudgingly i paid for it and when he said pls come again..hah! i would never again stand ten foot near his stall.

after the night ride, i reached KL at around 10.45 pm. As i was taking the LRT to KL sentral, i did jokingly imagined a situation where the last train had left the station and i was forced to stay a night out at KL sentral. off all the imaginations that i ever had in my life, i had to have this one come true…i was only about 11 minutes late. still early considering some group sang about being 25 minutes too late. me mam decided not to drive me back from KL sentral and asked me to take the wonderful taxi back home. it cost me 40 smackeroos. if my wallet didnt bring about 100 bucks when i left UTP…i really can sleep at the station.

Truly blessed i am on that day because i sat a taxi with a driver of great honesty. when i got in the car, he turned on the meter straight away. i mean most driver would just gimme a round figure for going to Klang at 11.35pm. but luckily i got the coupon anyways…so if he ever wanted to use his ‘oral meter’ i could still shut it up. So anyways, delighted by his honesty and supported by the fact that taxi drivers at 11.35 tend to be very friendly, we started chatting all the way back. so started off telling that he is from a poor family, so he learned the value of money, how his farm got burned by jealous villagers and for the first time he saw his father cry. at this point i just nodded with ‘yea, ic’. i was rather shocked by his telling of his life history to me. but the story got better because then he started to tell me how much he earned for his part time job as a taxi driver. the best part was, he is an accountant in the morning and because of insomnia, he became a taxi driver. i safely say he earns about 12000 in all. thats how much he told me… if i am some greedy pig…he could be in real danger.

so from financial welfare, we go into his love life. how he met his wife, how his wife like him because of his honesty and plainness. how his wife hit on him instead of him hitting on her. then he starts telling me that he is never embarrassed by the fact that he has no money and that he love his wife so much because of the fact that she liked him even though he has no money. so now all the money he earns he gives it to his wife for her to spend as she likes. what a nice guy huh girls? spend all u want and he wouldnt even complain…or maybe he does…but that was never mentioned..haha.

the BBQ partey passed with relative chaos because of the short preparation time. but generally everything went well. best part is, i don have to take the bus back to UTP, i got to hitch a ride home on my very E class Mercedes Benz. well, i guess i deserved it after spending about 60 bucks just get back here.

knowing how internet is in our beloved UTP, blogs are not normally updated as it usually should but with god’s grace i managed to return to my birth place to use one of god’s best gift… streamyx. just a click, i and i get to destinations that would have cost me hours and hours of frustrating clickings and re-clickings. I was desperate to use the internet since being cut off for so long… its like a torture not surfing the net for things u dyingly need.

eventful as UTP is, i never really wanted to be part of it partly because its really hypocritic most of times… we only do half sorry we only do Three-fourth of the things we do because some idiot big shot decided to visit the most prestigious University our very own Toronto has. and happily enough, one such event manage to absorb me into ranks of zombies to perform the ‘Lords’ demands. There was absolutely no negotiation, u are chosen, u do it. no excuses honey.

Engineers from some UK institute decided to head to UTP on the blessed day of Tuesday, a day after i have my test on monday night and after a hectic week of lab and passing up my lab report on wednesday, deadline for CPDE assignment on thursday and handing up my Reaction homework on friday. On the tuesday of that very hectic week, i was lumbering around the room in the morning, ready to enjoy a day of liberation from classes. Fate has it that my course mate Zainal has to knock on my door to announce the very mysterious news of meeting Dr Suzana (she absolutely hates it if u every forget to mention Dr) at around 4pm… what a kill joy. so the rest of my day is spent dreaming of all sorts of reason as to why should this mysterious meeting is taking place. for a fleeting moment i tot perhaps she has the time to check assignments and found out that i copied blindly. Well, that quickly went out of the picture…i mean she could have just told me off during lecture anyways. 4 pm came sooner than i expected…serious pissed off because it disrupted my plan of DOTAing… cant get enough of it ya know. To my surprise, i wasnt the only one called into this mysterious meeting, Jenny and Evon was also involved. come to think of it..its a bit stupid to think that i was the only one called for this meeting. she made us wait for about half an hour before she actually came out from her meeting to finally brief us what she wanted us to do.

Cutting the story short, i was absolutely, positively angry when i got to know that i am supposed to present on a lab experiment that i have never done before… and more importantly, i wouldnt be doing it either for my other lab session. its was like an uncalled for burden. i already have enough on my plate and here i am, been given another plateful of pickles…:S

Fuming? oh yes… i grumbled and mumbled to myself all the way back to my dorm… i would’ve screamed if douglas wasnt in the room. Why the tension u may ask… well, since i am going to be questioned by engineers from UK, i am picturing Viva sessions with mr Zamri multiplied by ten times. so u see, i need to know inside out of every principle, every step, every god damned detail i can think of so i can survive this to save my dignity (this is TRULY stupid). my frustrations increased when the library proved to be of no help this time and the internet can barely even go the yahoo page. armed with an empty hand to go against a possible MOAB, irritable level sky rocketed. This was not the way i intend to fight…

weekend passed in flash, and i spent my whole saturday reading Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials book 3: The Amber Spyglass. Tuesday came, trembling with nervousness, i took out my anxiety on anyone that i can see, joking and laughing at every instance. ppl might have thought i was nuts. The best part was, after all the anguish and frustrations for nearly a week, they came, asked some questions about the experiment which i answered after reading a sample report, shaked hands..and that was it. the whole thing took just 10 minutes. and it went rather well considering the person who interviewed us uttered the word ‘good’. harping on this event for nearly a week destroyed my previous week… stupid isnt it?

yesterday got a breifing from my Nokia 8250, mission directive: find the steam boat place similar to ipoh and find time of operation and days which they shut down to revitalise. msg din self destruct though…still in the phone..not that hi tech lar… if the msg self destruct must go find thana for compensation..hehe.. so anyways, got bit nervous cause this is my first mission since I join the NiLaohia Secret Organization (NiSO…pronounced nai-so not nee-so or whatever chemical compound which u try to find from the chemistry text book). this mission tested my skills to the limits… the skills of knowing arts and crafts of the most twisted minds of all: city planners or really, the lack of it. Special officer Thana or known in the organization as Agent T, couldnt have set a much harder task for me: know my area of occupation. I scored an F for Remember Roads and Destination Course. Nervous i was, but i was determined not to fail my first mission, i was allowed the liberty to seek help from whomever i choose. the choice was obvious, the only person who lives around my area but excelled in the course which i failed, Road Warrior Commander and Admiral of Car Fleet Tan Yee Fong or better known as Agent OKUI.

on Friday, 22 of July, 7.45, i set out to find the destination as described by Agent OKUI. i drove through the treacherous realms of Malaysian drivers: no signal light, drive in the middle of the road, put right signal but turn left, etc. Luckily i was trained to handle such atrocities, so by 8.30, i still couldnt find the destination, i decided to refer to Agent OKUI once more. i was at the right location, but no steamboat stalls on sight. i knew i had to resort to my most ultimate sources: Agent Road side cake stall and Agent Chicken Rice Stall. Agent Chicken Rice Stall told me it was opposite shops, away from Agent OKUI’s description, i went to the mentioned location but found only Clinic, Agent Road side cake stall, Kedai kopi "something" and other kedai kopi, desperate, i seek out Agent Road side cake stall’s help, and he pointed me to the location described by Agent OKUI, and then he dropped the bomb shell, "mei you kai" . din open stall in english. and i have drove past that area at least 3 times…-_-"

so I have reported to Agent T of todays unfortunate event of being unable to secure the required information but I must insist Agent T fire Agent Chicken Rice Stall for issuing false information.

ah..finally got me hands on the much awaited sixth harry potter book. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. its only 607 pages… (if u have not read the book then i suggest u not read any further because it would spoil the fun and thrill of reading) not too long if u ask me..but then again sufficient to fuel my 10 hours of the day. even i couldnt believe how fast i read the book..i tot i would last me for like another day.,.but it seems it hardly last me for half a day. all in all the book is as mysterious as the others… few unexpected twist,…may have felt that certian things are going to happen but just never know if she would allow it to anyways. kinda sad for Professor Dumbledore to die in this book. Stupid Snape finally showed his true colors to the world. if u are not a harry potter fan, don think u would understand the shock and anguish when i was reading the story… call me crazy but hey, a fan’s a fan. just like football fans getting all upset that their team lost and start rampaging through town, we harry potter fans feel the story too.

the story got me thinking all night about the possiblities and the non possiblities. Is snape really bad? was he acting on Dumbledore’s orders? most probably not, why would Dumbledore want Snape to kill him…but then again, it may be part of Dumbledores shrewd plans..but then again..most probably not. he wouldnt wanna die and leave harry alone. cant bear to read the book for the second time.. cause i know what i would read again and its like kinda don wanna see it cause its too sad to read… boy..i think i’m outta me mind…

Alas… 2 months have finally come to an end… soon, i shall have to return to Toroto of Malaysia. everyone i meet says 2 months hols is toooo long… well, i find it just nice for to get my brains all relax and empty, ready for another sem of hell. i can already predict how the sem will go with group projects, its gonna be a joke if its gonna be anywhere near relaxing. well, guess it woulds be so bad because i get to play dota again.. haha. come to think of it, i have done absolutely NOTHING for the past 2 months except of hanging around the neighbourhood.

Harry potter book is coming out soon!! yay!! my favourite book. thats gonna keep me occupied for another day at least, this time the book is only 309 pages..heck, i can finish it in less than a day..why didnt she write longer? >_<

vell, vat can i say, zis sem is very very very very very very bad. thats what i can say. due to my over loving and care for a game called dota. to the masses, maybe its a boring game. but to me it is so addictive. if my dad reads this, i am as good as stuff piglet for new year. i guess its my only salvation for all the stress, frustration and anger that i accumalate during the day when i have to swallow all the misery of others and eat the misery of my own. well, i guess that is how most chinese are brought up anyways. by misery i don mean ppl who come to me and tell me their personal problems…its something else. with a big smile i wave them all away, assuring others that it is ok. assuring myself everything will go right…assuring myself i can pull this off..i’ve done it so many times. its just another obstacle along the way..what the heck. optimism, something i have started to learn when i came to this place call UTP. something i have learned from someone in particular. always smiling and calm no matter what happens. that is what i tried to imitate. smile and tell myself its ok. making the person on the receiving end believe its ok.

but unfortunately, no matter how much i smiled, i ended up getting angry anyways. with the mountain of work i had to do and being half a perfectionist when compared to my sister, its hard to keep my head cool. its even harder to accept the reality that what i am about to pass up will be nearly rubbish. lab reports are more like photocopy versions of ancient documents. i don mind cut and pasting facts…but entire sentences? entire page??? and it took 7 hours just to right click the document and send! if that doesnt boil your blood, i don know what will. and u must be one heck of patient dude.